Doing Math a lot of students is rarely associated with joy or excitement. This summer's grand experiment is to see if we can make a dent in changing that for a few young minds.

We will have Math for the Problem Solvers camp every afternoon for 8 weeks. This is an individual paced program. We expect to limit to 8-10 students each week and will be guided by 2 instructors. Students can choose to attend 4-6 sessions or all 8 sessions.

I'm guessing some students come to this camp because they want to win Mathcount competition(and I will use Math Olympiad materials to train them). But most may come to this because they want to improve math basic skills. I have two kids who fit into those two categories. There might be a couple who want to do a reset in learning math. For those, building confidence and seeing their own progress become uber important. I'd like to see how we can make a difference in these young lives.

In order to make their learning rewarding, the short term gratification is just as important. These will be the students that will have daily surprises after their rigorous work. So ideally they will be working half of the time and play hard half of the time.

Truth to be told, the ones who work the hardest typically enjoy working the most. Nothing can replace the sheer joy of overcoming some significant challenges on their own, no matter where they are at.

I’m Beverly. I left HP four weeks ago to run MentorsCloud.com, which was founded two years ago by my son, Danny. As he prepares to go to his dream school Stanford, I’m inheriting his local company to offer something unique to your family and our community this summer.

While our kids all gain the same benefits of public and private schools, the difference is how kids spend their time after school and during the summer. This is why enrichment camps are gaining popularity every day. The fast trending ones are the programming camps, according to Google Trend analytics.

To follow our coding camp tradition, we have added Mobile App and JavaScript camps this year. This is the next step for our Game Programming students. We also hired Greg Saathoff this summer to teach JavaScript. He used to work with me in HP as an engineer and now he is a certified computer science teacher at a local high school.

Although programming skills are gaining popularity among the “new rich”, the “old money” still send their kids to liberal arts schools to learn the old craft of critical thinking, public speaking, and creative writing. As we all know those people become bosses at work. The soft skills they learn when growing up are their advantage.

I wanted my kids to learn these soft skills too. So each summer, I sent my kids to out of state camps that cost me $2000-$4000 each. I simply could not find the ones here that matched the quality and intensity of learning.

I’d like to change that situation; It became my mission to bring premium camps here to our local families at an affordable cost. We have hired award winning instructors to teach both writing and public speaking camps to students from 3rd grade to 8th grade. You can check out their profiles at www.mentorsCloud.com/team. As for high school students, they might want to check out the Personal Statement Essay Writing Boot Camp which will be taught by Jackie Sizemore, the previous Carnegie Mellon Admissions Officer. Again, if Yale Alumni network teach their own kids those elite skills, and if Brown University charges a huge premium to offer this to the rich kids, we can do it in Boise too with a small fee.​Those camps are open for registration at www.MentorsCloud.com. Special referral credits are offered. To find out the specifics, please go to our website.

We are a very small local company at the beginning of our journey. Most of you have come across our paths as either our student families or our supporters. If you believe in the value we deliver, please forward this email to 5-10 of your friends. It takes a village to raise a child. It also takes a town to foster the growth of a young company to do common good.

One last thing, we’d like to continue our tradition of giving summer enrichment to some children who couldn't afford it. Forward this email to those families and have them contact us at our website. If you would like to co-sponsor a child, please let us know too. The Summer Camp Advantage should be shared by all.

The following is what I sent to 22 Boise/Meridian Toastmasters Clubs. You might all enjoy the story too.​***********************************************************************************

Dear Toastmasters,

Four years ago, a 14 year-old Boise boy agonized in a speech practice room, with his right arm duct-taped around his body. He stuttered and waved his arm constantly when he spoke, so his young coach did the unthinkable. It was in UT Austin’s premium speech camp, for which his parents had paid close to $2000.

The camp was extremely well orchestrated by the award-winning coaches/students (in spite of the duck-tape). This young boy made some progress in the 3-week camp, enough to motivate him to join his high school’s speech and debate team. Now four years later, he has spoken in front of 700-800 people in different community events with confidence and ease.

That is my son Danny. He is heading to Stanford in the fall. The speech camp in UT Austin became the pivotal point in his life. "The duct-tape that once bound me now freed me", as he wrote in one of his personal statement essays.

I recently left HP to run the startup MentorsCloud.com, with the goal to bring the premium camps to Boise/Meridian and make them affordable to local families. One of the three pillar offerings is “Public Speaking” (and now you understand why). We hired awarding winning instructors to teach this camp. Our instructor, Kristin, was the speech teacher of the year and brought her speech team in a low income school to championship two years in a row.

If you want to know more about the camps for your kids (grouped by 3rd-5th grad, 6th-9th grade), please check out www.MentorsCloud.com.

Since this is the first time Boise offers public speaking camps to young students, I need your help to get the word out. If you think Toastmasters helped you in any shape or form, think what the camps can do for the younger students!

The community not only needs builders, but also dwellers and agents. Be the agents of change in young people’s lives now! Send this email to your club members, families, and friends. Print out the flyer attached and post it in your offices!

Thanks for being our earliest subscribers. The world has always been propelled forward by the early adopters of something. So high five to yourself for being one of the those propellers.

You all care about your kids' education and that's why we have come together. Let me tell you why I am passionate about what we do in education. Then maybe you can tell me about your stories/thoughts by responding to my blog at www.MentorsClou.com.

My son Danny was recently offered nice amount of scholarships/grants from different institutions, and 6 top 20 universities bought him tickets to visit them. He chose Stanford in the end. Many parents asked me why and how. I would say one of the contributing factors is his summer pursuits outside schools from the time when he was young, particularly in the area of coding, creative writing, and public speaking (and debate). Those three areas build the core skills that the modern world demands, not just in schools, but for life. Most importantly, those skills spark creativity and inspire confidence along the way, and will enable kids to shine in many things they choose to do down the road.

In the past, we always sent Danny to out of town summer camps and paid $2000-$3000 for each, because we we could not find the particular opportunities in Boise. He did go to a lot of camps at the local YMCA, Morrison Center, Discovery Center, etc.. We found while most of those were fun, they were unlike the premium camps we paid big money for. The results were inevitably different.

This gave me a clear vision and determination to bring the premium camps to Boise area for many more local families to afford. We hired award-winning instructors and we are going to build upon our culture of achievement to help kids grow. You know what? The exhilarating fun comes when young students experience that sense of pride, wonder, and achievement. Nothing beats that! No amount of video games, movies, or fancy trips can accomplish that.